It is common practice to provide product display devices to organize and merchandise shelved products to consumers. This is particularly true with respect to displaying and merchandising chilled soft drink products in conventional refrigerated display coolers. See, for example, the display units disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,024,336; 5,351,838; 5,417,333; and 5,531,336. It is also common practice to provide product display devices which include a plurality of product channels or modules which can be laterally interlocked together in side-by-side relationship to form an overall stabilized assembly for supporting products in an columnar array. See, for example, the display units disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,685,574; 4,785,945; 5,050,748; 5,624,042; 5,634,564; and 5,645,176. This width adjustability has made such product display devices more accommodating for use with known refrigerated coolers having different spatial dimensions.
Since the advent of the larger product containers such as the 20 oz. and 1 liter product containers commonly utilized in the soft drink beverage industry, a wide variety of display devices have been designed and manufactured for use in merchandising these taller product containers. One problem encountered in merchandising these taller product containers is the fact that such taller containers have a greater tendency to tip over either the front wall or the side walls associated with a particular product channel. In order to overcome this toppling tendency, many product display devices now include higher channel divider walls, higher front walls, and a wide variety of different front wall configurations which include higher transversely extending front members or upright posts as well as a wide variety of different front wall stop or abutment members which are positioned and located so as to engage the taller product containers at or above the center of inertia of the lead product container positioned in any product channel. See, for example, the display units disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,785,943; 5,351,838; 5,531,336; 5,624,042; and 5,645,176.
Although product display devices have, for the most part, been designed so as to more attractively arrange and position the various shelved products positioned thereon for easy accessibility and visibility by a consumer at the front portion of the unit, greater emphasis is now being placed on product visibility and product graphics. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,176. Because more and more product merchandising units are now displaying a full view of the lead article or product container positioned within any particular product channel, properly orienting the product label or graphics associated with a particular product container, such as a typical soft drink beverage container, has become more important for attractively displaying such products to consumers. For a wide variety of reasons including loading and/or stocking techniques, consumers manipulating the product containers within the various product channels, and the inattentiveness and inability of store personnel to properly orient each individual product container within a multitude of individual product channels merchandising soft drink beverages to consumers in any particular store application, all of these factors contribute to the fact that often times, the lead article or product container in a multitude of product channels is not properly oriented such that the product label or graphics identifying such product is not clearly readable or visible to a consumer positioned in front of the respective product channel. This situation not only presents an unattractive and disorderly arrangement and display of the products in any particular product channel, but such arrangement also detracts from the sale of that particular product since its product identification is not readily accessible and visible to the consumer. The same is likewise true for all of the product containers positioned behind the lead article in any particular product channel. There is no guarantee how each successive product container in any particular product channel will be positioned and oriented at the front portion of the display unit when such product container ultimately assumes the lead article position. One solution to this particular problem is to have store personnel properly orient each product container in all of the numerous product channels utilized in any particular store application so as to ensure that, at least, the lead article in each product channel is properly oriented and facing forward for easy visibility by passing consumers. This solution would require an enormous amount of time for store personnel to achieve, particularly, if all of the product containers in each product channel were properly positioned and oriented, and such solution would require constant monitoring and re-organization throughout the entire operating hours of the particular facility involved.
The above-discussed problem has lessened the attractiveness of the individual product displays, it has required more frequent sorting and re-organizing of the products in the respective product channels, which procedure is extremely time-consuming; and this problem has also been found to impede the sales of those products which are not properly oriented at the front of each product channel. It is therefore a principal aim of the present invention to obviate this particular problem and provide a mechanism for properly orienting the product graphics associated with all of the product containers positioned in any product channel regardless of the respective product container orientations in any such product channel. It is also a principal aim of the present invention to improve upon the prior art display devices referenced above thereby obviating many of the disadvantages and shortcomings associated with such prior art devices and to provide a modular display system which will accommodate product containers of various sizes, which is width adjustable and compatible for use with all of the known refrigerated display coolers, and which includes means for not only interlocking any plurality of product modules so as to provide a unitary, stabilized structure, but which also includes means for adjustably positioning each product module relative to the front portion of the underlying support structure upon which the modules rest for better product visibility and accessibility to consumers.